


Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Peter and Araneus

by literally_no_idea



Series: Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH) Main Series [24]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, SDfSH 'verse, Service Animals, Service Dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-06 19:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18224594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: A few days after Peter’s mission, Tony approaches Natasha in the shooting range. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”Natasha puts the gun she was using down and steps back from the lane, walking over to where Tony’s standing by the door, Diva waiting just outside. “Sure, what’s up?”“So, you saw the dog that has Peter’s DNA now, right? Araneus? Do you think you could train him to be a service dog for Peter?”





	Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Peter and Araneus

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new here, welcome! This part of the series is about Peter and Araneus. Enjoy!

A few days after Peter’s mission, Tony approaches Natasha in the shooting range. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

 

Natasha puts the gun she was using down and steps back from the lane, walking over to where Tony’s standing by the door, Diva waiting just outside. “Sure, what’s up?”

 

“So, you saw the dog that has Peter’s DNA now, right? Araneus? Do you think you could train him to be a service dog for Peter?”

 

Natasha smiles sadly. “You know, I was actually planning on talking to Peter about that. He still has the nightmares about his parents, and flashbacks about his uncle, right?”

 

“Yeah. I didn’t know you knew about that.”

 

Natasha shrugs. “May and I talk about him a lot. Apparently he also sleepwalks sometimes, wanders around their apartment and occasionally sits down and just screams or cries for an hour or two.”

 

Tony sucks in a breath. “Jesus. Okay, well. I just wanted to ask. Uh. Thank you.”

 

“No problem.”

 

* * *

 

Natasha goes over to Peter and May’s apartment on Friday night so Peter won’t have to worry about getting homework done while they talk. She’s already talked to May about it, so when she arrives, May just steps back to let Natasha in, calling Peter to come down to the living room.

 

Natasha and May sit down while they wait, talking about Araneus and the other dogs until Peter comes racing down the stairs, Araneus following close behind. “Oh! Hi, Ms. Romanoff! I didn’t know you were coming over. Is everything okay?”

 

“Everything's fine, Peter, I just wanted to talk to you about Araneus.”

 

Peter’s face falls. “Oh. Do you have to take him away? Because that’s okay, really! If you have to, that’s fine, but he’s just a really good dog, so I want to make sure he’s happy wherever he ends up, and--”

 

“Pete, no, I’m not taking him away,” Natasha interrupts, “I was wondering if you wanted to work with me to train him as a service dog. For you,” she clarifies, and Peter’s eyes widen.

 

“Wait, really? That’d be so cool! I mean-- hold on, don’t I need to be disabled for that?”

 

“Yes, and psychiatrically, you are. You’re telling me that you don’t find the fact that you sneak out of classes to hide in closets and cry to be pretty disabling? Or the fact that you fall asleep in classes because you’ve been having night terrors?”

 

Peter shrugs. “I mean, I guess? But it’s not like I’m failing my classes because of it.”

 

“The fact that you’re far above the rest of your classmates in general doesn’t mean you’re not struggling psychologically,” Natasha points out, and Peter drops down to sit on the carpet across from the couch, Araneus immediately resting his head in Peter’s lap.

 

“Yeah, okay, that’s true. So, how does training work, then? Is there a special way that has to work? Wait, probably not, because you trained everyone else’s dogs, right? Can I help?”

 

“No, there’s no special requirements, and yes, you can help. Come by the tower tomorrow and we can start training?”

 

* * *

 

Training doesn’t take long; Araneus and Peter are both very fast learners, and it takes them about three months to finish training to a point where Natasha is comfortable letting Peter take Araneus places with him. There’s a bit of resistance from the school about letting a service dog come to school with Peter, but Natasha settles that by going to the school personally to talk to the principal, and soon Peter and Araneus are going everywhere together.

 

Part of the resistance to letting Araneus come to the school had probably been the fact that Araneus is an American Staffordshire Terrier, and that resistance translates into other public access places too. There’s a few times when Peter had ended up texting Natasha from a back alley, asking for her help because he couldn’t get the staff to listen to him, claiming he was just a “kid with a dog,” and Natasha had quickly settled those disputes as well.

 

It had taken a few times for Peter to even be comfortable texting Natasha for help; Peter had been surprised at how willing Natasha was to help him, but she had just smiled and ruffled his hair when he told her as much, telling him that “Us spider folks have to stick together, you know?” Peter had just accepted that answer, because what do you even say to that? And besides, he appreciated the help, he wasn’t going to look into it too deeply. And if Natasha was doing it because it also made her feel like a mom of sorts, the same way Tony felt a bit like Peter’s dad whenever he helped the kid out, well, no one needed to know that. It could be her secret.

**Author's Note:**

> Your service dog facts of the day:
> 
> -Service dogs can be any breed! And they cannot be excluded because of breed-specific legislation (at least in the US, I don't know about other countries). This means that even if a city/county/state/etc has a "no pit bull/german shepherd/etc" rule, that does not apply to a pit bull/german shepherd/etc service dog. However, this is only under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). The FHA (Fair Housing Act) and ACAA (Air Carrier Access Act) have different rules, and they do allow discrimination. It's ridiculous, and unfair, but until we change the FHA and ACAA rules, that's how it is.
> 
> -In terms of public access, you cannot exclude a service animal on the basis of another person's fear or allergies. If someone else has a fear of dogs or allergies, the business should do their best to accommodate both individuals (for example, put them in separate areas of the building, limit contact with one another, etc), but you can't just exclude a service animal from the business for someone else's fear or allergies.
> 
> If you want to see more drabbles and notes related to this series or want to talk to me about this series or anything else for that matter, you can find me on tumblr [ here ](https://servicedogsforsuperheroes.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
